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Signal Quality

New Member

Hi, I am a newbie to the forum. I have a pvr 9300t that I am having problems with.
I had the message banner coming up on screen when the topbox was first powered up saying' The antenna cable is short-circuited' I have done a factory default setting and this appears to have gone, the problem which still exists is that the picture and sound keep 'dropping out' very briefly which obviously affects the veiwing.
Having looked at the signal detection setting in the menu I have noticed that the quality indicator is varying between 100% down to 50%, the strength indicator is reading between 100% to 80%, does this sound like software problem or a physical repair? Any help gratefully received.

I have done a factory default setting and this appears to have gone, the problem which still exists is that the picture and sound keep 'dropping out' very briefly which obviously affects the veiwing.
Having looked at the signal detection setting in the menu I have noticed that the quality indicator is varying between 100% down to 50%, the strength indicator is reading between 100% to 80%, does this sound like software problem or a physical repair?

Strength between 80 and 100% is high. Do you have an amplifier and if so what is the signal strength with it turned off? Anything over 40% signal strength should give 100% quality in most situations. Your problem is the fluctuating quality; it should be a steady 100%. The first thing I would try is to manually tune the box; I suggest the Big-les instructions in post #21 at http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1262315

New Member

Yes I am running a 6 outlet mains Labgear splitter/amp which is in the loft, this worked fine on all the TV's when they were analogue, do you know if this needed now that all analogue signals are now finished for my area (Suffolk) Is there a splitter that replaces this one now that we are all digital? is the digital signal stonger than the old analogue?

New Member

I have today done a manual tune as described by Big-les, the problem still exists. The rest of the TV's in the house have freeview tuners built in and these are OK so it seems to be a problem with the PVR rather than antenna problems. Today the signal strength is around 80% and the quality varying between 40% and 100%, any other ideas gratefully received.

New Member

Since change over my Inlaws PVR9150 is showing 80% strength and quality between 40 -100%. Had call from a mate who lives 5 miles from me who has two PVR9150 and both are playing up! I live 24 miles from the transmitter could it be signal strength? The freeview built into the TV work fine.

New Member

Even @ 24km from the transmitter it's fairly unlikely that signal strength should be too much. I'm 39km=24 miles East of Tacolneston and my 9200T reports a max of 75% signal using a DAT45 antenna with margin raising device (amplifier) - an increase from 60% max - many were lower than that.

It is, however, a possibility that the amplifiers in use mean the signal feeding the Humax PVR is now too high... a symptom of 'overload' being reduced quality readings. If the booster amplifiers in use have a gain control turn them down.

[In most cases this overload condition should be unlikely as the higher power DTT signals are replacing higher power analogue ones and the analogue should have given overload type problems earlier... Tacolneston went from 250kW analogue to 100kW DSO DTT which is double the power of most other DSOs (usually 1/5 of the analogue power)].

If no gain control: 1. try connecting the aerial direct to the Humax/TV feed (using a coupler or joiner to by-pass the amplifier) and check if that combination works. 2. try fitting an 'attenuator' between the aerial and amplifier input (6 dB or 9 dB are likely candidates as the power increase at DSO is usually around 10dB) {or fit one before the Humax, assuming the amplifier is not itself overloading}.

In some places it may now be possible to fit a passive splitter instead of an amplified splitter (aka distribution amplifier).